Saturday, August 1, 2015

Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf by Dosh Archer (2009)

At work, we are on a month long quest called "A to Z Challenge: Easy Readers" in which staff who work with children are supposed to read books from the easy reader section whose last names range from A to Z. My first book is Dosh Archer and his book Big Bad Wolf from a series called Urgency Emergency.

I wasn't hoping for much when - this looked like a typical easy reader. And I'm still not a big fan of the clunky illustrations, which seem to be some sort of paint and line drawing. But I ended up being enchanted by the story. Doctor Glenda (a female dog... for real... no joke...) and Nurse Percy (ummmm... a cock... again, no joke... I guess I'm a beast myself...) work the ER of some busy Aesop's fable hospital (since this is an English easy reader, perhaps this is the hospital that they built when they tore down Toad Hall) when a wolf comes in with something stuck in his throat. I must be dense, because it took me a while (and this is a short book people) to realize what was stuck in his throat - and it was exactly what I wanted it to be! Too many books for kids today are squishy and namby pamby. Not this one.

While the illustrations weren't my favorite (too clunky for my taste), the story ended up being a real kick. Doctor Glenda and Nurse Percy (a dog and a rooster) work in a hospital ER (St. Aesop's? Or perhaps, because this is an English import, maybe it's the hospital built after they tore down Toad Hall). Their urgent emergency in this story is the Big Bad Wolf, who is choking on something - and that something is EXACTLY what I wanted it to be!